So, as some of you may have heard today I was heads up for a bracelet and even went as far as to get it in with AKs to 66 and flop an ace for the win but it unfortunately didn't work out. Fortunately I did win about 200k so it's hard to complain about anything, really, especially given how I ran throughout the tournament. For those interested, below I'm going to recount some of the crucial hands along the way.

DAY 1

At the first table we had 10 stacks and started w 15k at 100-200, though 1 of the stacks remained dead throughout and we played 9 handed. The first interesting hand happened at 200-400 where I had ~16k and we were 8 handed. Rainkhan who had been opening his fair share, opens utg to 1k and covers me, I'm utg+1 and decide to make it 2600 w J7dd despite having 3bet him twice already in late position because I think he folds 22-77 almost always and almost always folds his suited broadways. Folds to him and he calls, QJ8cc flop, chk chk, turn 6 bringing a 2nd fd, he checks and I decide my hand looks enough like AK that I can get two streets of value from 99/TT which I think are by far his most likely hands because if he had a hand like AQ or KQs I think he'd bet the turn. I bet 3500, he calls, river K chk chk he has 99.

Later on we are 5 handed and I open 79o in the CO to 1250 at 250-500 with about 35k, this slovenian kid on the button makes it 3500 and his mannerisms are entirely different from the previous times he's re-raised, he also looks uncomfortable and awkward and ultimately, weak. I ship it in for only 10k more and he sighs and I'm like sweet he's folding, then he calls w AQs but I get there.

3 handed I started with about 90k of the 150k in play and got down to 50k when I made a debatable call down where a loose passive french(?) guy opens the sb to 3500 at 500-1k and I call in the bb w JTdd, flop Tc9h5c he bets 5k I call, turn 5h he bets 7k I call, river 4h he bets 5k I call and lose to AT. I think shoving the river or folding the turn are both viable options because I honestly think if this particular player had a draw he would c/c turn almost always. Anyway, this same guy had been very tight while we were 4 handed and has 3bet me and shown AA and KK when I've folded, but has recently amped up his aggression quite a bit with much more rampant 3betting out of his bb(as well as super wide defending vs my btn opens). So, I opens to 2500 at 500-1k w Q8dd and he makes it 8500 which is a pretty standard size for him, and due to the fact that he's been much more aggressive and the likely chance he is 3betting hands like AT/AJ/KQ that he'll fold to a shove, I shove, and he snaps w AK but I win relatively easily.

Heads up I beat my opponent without too much trouble as he was very easy to grind down, though we played 1 interesting hand towards the end where I open the btn to 3k at 600-1200 with 99, he makes it 10.2k as he had been doing somewhat frequently and more so as of late, so with about 70k I decided to flat. In retrospect I think both shoving and flatting are fine and I'm somewhat torn on what I think is better. Flop comes 742r and he open shoves for 3x pot???? Given how he'd played I really had no idea what he had at first, because he was very passive post flop and pf in general, but I just couldn't give him credit for an overpair because it seems like the way he played he'd either check or bet small, so I ultimately called and held vs a surprising 46o.

DAY 2

On day 2 we were 6 handed starting with 150k stacks and 1k-2k-300 blinds. Right off the bat a guy who I knew to be semi-competent squoze KK and got it in vs AK and lost, so we were 5 handed almost immediately. I played some un-interesting pots before UTG limps, I complete sb w 44, bb checks, J67r chk chk chk, turn 5 bringing fd, I bet 5500 bb call limper call, river Ao I check bb bets 14k UTG calls I shove for ~100k, they both fold. My thought process was that the BB who was a tightish internet player would probably fold all 2 pair hands and the UTG limper tanked before calling so he has AXcc at best and even if he has aces up he may fold because my hand looks so huge.

At 1200-2400-300 utg opens to 7k who has been playing quite tight but seems a bit clowny, I make it 20k otb w QQ and ~95k, he tank calls. Flop 567ss he tanks then shoves I snap he has JTo and I hold.

No other really interesting hands occurred until we got 3 handed where David 'the dragon' Pham won a flip vs the tight internet player and we went HU. At 2k-4k-500 he limps as he had been doing about 75-80% of the time, I 4x it as I have been about 10-15% of the time w AA he calls. Flop J62r I bet 20k he makes it 50k I call. Turn 7 bringing a fd with the 6 I check he bets 130k I shove for about 110k more he calls w JTo and I hold. Shortly after he calls my open I have A7o and I 3 barrel an A53r turn J bringing fd river Ko and he calls down and I win. Right before the break I open Tx9d he calls, flop A34ddd chk chk, turn Kd he bets I call, river blank he bets relatively big and I think he's bluffing sometimes and can MAYBE have a smaller flush so I call but he has Q8dd.

So coming into 2500-5k-500 I have about a 2:1 chip lead and we play a hand where he limps, I 4x 78ss he calls. Flop A43r I bet 22k he calls, turn is a 7 bringing a fd, I check he bets 61k I call. Previously I'd seen him make a float on an A high flop and bet biggish on the turn as he did here, and I also thought he'd raise most big hands on the flop, additionally I don't think he bets this big w Ax on the turn. River Ao I check he shoves for ~215k and I just decided to go with my read that he was floating and call, though I don't necessarily know how often he is floating and continuing on 2 streets. I thought the straight getting there on the turn and the fact that my hand looks weak on the turn makes it better for me to call down, anyway he has A4o and now he has a 2:1 chip lead.

I grind him down a bit more and then at 3k-6k-500 I open JJ to 15k he makes it 46k and he's been 3betting pretty infrequently. Even still though I think he has TT/99 definitely and maybe 88/77 so I shove for ~260k and he snaps KK. T43r....turn J river 9 and I double. Shortly after this I open to 15k again and he makes it 40k. Based on his mannerisms I was pretty sure he didn't have something big and his raise sizing seemed indicative of something marginal like AJ, KQ or JTs. Anyway I decide to call instead of 4b because the stacks are like 440k effective. Flop QJ5dd he bets 70k I make it 200 he shoves I call, beat KK and advance. I did an interview with pokernews after this match that can be found here: http://link.brightcove.com/services/...id=27204597001

After consideration of the match vs David I'd say although his fundamentals are terrible his instincts are fantastic and he owned me on reverse live tells, so I'd say he is an extremely good live tournament player with good discipline and a very good idea of how donks will react to certain things.

DAY 3 FINAL TABLE

To begin the final table we started w 1.5m each and blinds at 10k-20k-3k. I chipped up to ~2m quickly when I stole some blinds and got paid on a river value bet where Danny Wong opened the CO to 60k I call btn w 6s6x, flop 932ss he bets 100k I call, turn Ts chk chk, river 7s...

to vegas vegas for my first world series of poker in a few weeks. I'm saying it now so it's not a surprise to anyone, expect no less than two bracelets from yours truly.

After my first trip to vegas a few weeks ago, which was quite pleasant as I had a real deep run in the WPT championship(coming in 13th after 5 days of play), had a lot of fun hanging out with some cool people and enjoyed some good food, I was off to Monte Carlo for the EPT finals. This was my first time in Monte Carlo as well and I have to say it's easily the most beautiful place I've ever been to. The town is just unlike any other I've ever seen and the weather was great to boot. I have never seen so many rooftop gardens in my life, and if I had to guess I'd say the crime rate is almost non-existent.

I made day two of the main event in Monte Carlo but busted mid-day on a flip. After I had busted I decided to play the high roller, a 25k euro buyin, on the premise that the field would be softer than most high roller tournaments. Fortunately for me, I was correct in my assumptions. It got 79 runners, most of whom were recreational players, though it obviously still drew some pros.

Near the end of day 1 I was either chip leader or in 2nd, but finished the day only a bit above average. On day 2 as the structure got faster I wasn't able to do much in the beginning as there were not many spots to accumulate, and I was getting frustrated that I was sinking to the avg/below avg mark, until I got it in w KK to QQ, but my opponent made quads. After being down to 10bb I got it in with KK to AQs and held, then won a flip shortly after w 66 to AQo to get back roughly where I was before though as the blinds had gone up I only had 40bb. When we got down to 24 tables broke and we re-drew, and only an orbit or two after sitting down I open the sb w AsQx to 9k at 1.5k-3k, stars pro William Thorson calls in the BB, flop Q72ss I bet 10.5 he tanks and shoves for about 100k and gets there w K7o. I was very frustrated for obvious reasons but knew there was nothing I could do, so getting angry really serves to purpose. After Monte Carlo was done we decided to head over to Amsterdam for a few days to relax and enjoy what the city has to offer before coming back to MD.

Second day back on the grind I get 1-2 action from a guy I recognize but don't know a whole ton about, long story short we get deep and this happens.

Full Tilt Poker Game #12125680261: Table Relish (heads up) - $100/$200 - No Limit Hold'em - 19:44:09 ET - 2009/05/09
Seat 1: luckychewy ($50,051.25)
Seat 2: THENUTHUNTER ($44,846.50)
THENUTHUNTER posts the small blind of $100
luckychewy posts the big blind of $200
The button is in seat #2
*** HOLE CARDS ***
Dealt to luckychewy [3c 6c]
THENUTHUNTER raises to $600
luckychewy raises to $2,350
THENUTHUNTER calls $1,750
*** FLOP *** [4c 2s 6h]
luckychewy has 15 seconds left to act
luckychewy bets $3,500
THENUTHUNTER has 15 seconds left to act
THENUTHUNTER raises to $9,000
luckychewy has 15 seconds left to act
luckychewy calls $5,500
*** TURN *** [4c 2s 6h] [5d]
luckychewy checks
THENUTHUNTER has 15 seconds left to act
THENUTHUNTER bets $11,000
luckychewy has 15 seconds left to act
luckychewy has requested TIME
luckychewy calls $11,000
*** RIVER *** [4c 2s 6h 5d] [Ah]
luckychewy checks
THENUTHUNTER has 15 seconds left to act
THENUTHUNTER bets $22,496.50, and is all in
luckychewy calls $22,496.50
*** SHOW DOWN ***
THENUTHUNTER shows [7s 8s] a straight, Eight high
luckychewy mucks
THENUTHUNTER wins the pot ($89,692.50) with a straight, Eight high
*** SUMMARY ***
Total pot $89,693 | Rake $0.50
Board: [4c 2s 6h 5d Ah]
Seat 1: luckychewy (big blind) mucked [3c 6c] - a straight, Six high
Seat 2: THENUTHUNTER (small blind) showed [7s 8s] and won ($89,692.50) with a straight, Eight high

That's all for now, take care fellas.

So, I woke up this morning expecting to lose $40,000 in tournaments on what is probably the biggest day of tournaments in online history to date. I expected to lose this large sum of money in the stars SCOOP, culminating in the first ever online $10k(to my knowledge, at least the biggest prize pool of any $10k) and the medium buyin $1k, along with the $25k hu and the medium buyin $2.5k. A ridiculously awesome schedule if you ask me.

I started off beating genius28 in the first round of the $25k in a somewhat interesting match, then I lost to towliestar in round 2, the eventual winner. Congrats to him, whoever he is.

In the $2600 I was cruising along until an extremely stressful 6th round match where I was down to ~800 chips at the 50-100 level with 10k chips in play. Fortunately, I got it in with decent equity a few times, coolered the guy, and scooped it up. During the duration of this match I also managed to amass huge stacks in both the $10k and the $1k.

The 7th round until the finals were pretty quick matches where I was able to win without anything too crazy going on. In the finals I was up against some random guy I'd never heard of, who had a location that seemed like it could be European. Right off the bat he asked me to even chop, with first being 172 and second being 96, but I really just felt like playing it out and was hoping I could just run good for 1 more match!

After a mini cooler w T9 to J9 where I c/c 3 streets on K59 w a fd, turn 9 bringing 2nd fd and river 2 completing backdoor flush, I was down to half the starting stack and there was a 5 minute break shortly after. On the break I was just thinking about how annoyed I would be if I came in 2nd in such a huge tournament where I felt like I held over every single one of my opponents. So upon coming back I decided to cooler the guy, and then suckout for 75% of the chips in play after getting it in w T3 to 44 on a TT4 flop to give me a 4:1 chip lead. We traded some pots back and forth before I got it in w 57 to 56 on a 778 and held!

I was ecstatic, to say the least, and still had a huge stack in the $10k. Unfortunately I lost a huge pot w AA to KQ after a K47 flop, but it was rather easy to take a beat like that after such a sweet score.

Tomorrow I'll be relaxing and finishing up my taxes before heading off to the bellagio on Tuesday for the WPT championship. Once I've conquered the bellagio I'll be heading to monte carlo for the EPT finals which should be incredible. After this is all over it'll be only a few more weeks before I head out to vegas for a couple months and my first WSOP!

So i haven't updated in a while, mostly cause I've been pretty busy. some friends and I ended up doing mardi gras, which was a great time. New Orleans is a pretty wild city, with some fun people and fantastic food. It's unreal how many bars there are and how much alcohol must be consumed in that week. The types of drinks that are served are also definitely home to New Orleans.

After mardi gras I went down to Orlando to hangout with some friends for about a week, where we just hung out and did random stuff. One day we went to islands of adventure(theme park) which is known for it's incredible hulk roller coaster ride, hit a magic game one day, got some nice sushi, etc. Now, don't get me wrong, I like roller coasters and adventure and such, but this was a little excessive for me. If I knew what was going on while I was being ripped around through turns at high speeds I'd explain it to you guys myself, but since I have no idea here's how it works, quoted from wikipedia,

"At the lift hill, riders enter the Project Gamma tube and hear Bruce Banner expressing his dismay at yet another malfunction. He stammers: "Everything looks good....I think...I think this time it's going to work". A malfunction of the machine takes place by a quote saying,"Warning: Coolant Level Dropping." Bruce screams: "No....No! No!!!!!! Let Me out of here!" After that sentence riders are shot out within 2 seconds at 40 mph (64 km/h) and are sent through a zero-g roll, down a 105-foot (32 m) drop and through a cobra roll. Riders complete a vertical loop, then enter a tunnel full of mist. At this point of the ride, the train's speed has reached approximately 60-67 mph. The train encircles the gamma tube and is sent into the back area via corkscrew. After another vertical loop and two over-banked turns, the coaster is slowed down by a brake run before being sent down another hill to a corkscrew and turn-around. Riders then travel sideways through a camera area and then to the ride's closing after a helix."

Needless to say after the ride was over I nearly fell when I stood up and felt extremely nauseous, nearing the point of ready to vomit.

That's all for now, pokerwise I've been doing alright, nothing special but booking small wins here and there.

After another month and a half of traveling, albeit relatively local east coast stuff, I'm happy to be back home where I'm doing a good amount of grinding and making an effort to lead a more balanced lifestyle where I am working out regularly and eating better - something that is, for me at least, almost impossible to do on the road.

Now that I'm home I'm excited to check out the bar scene in a new town as well as the bars around DC as it's only a 10 minute ride by taxi/metro to the 'college' areas. Since moving here I haven't been able to meet many new people since I know a fair amount of people in the area and have been grinding so much but I'm ready to see what Bethesda has to offer.

I'm also going to be going to mardi gras for 5 days with a few friends which should just be out of control fun. It will also be a nice break from poker which has been stressful because high stakes swings are ridiculous sometimes.

Hey everyone, since the last time I updated my blog I put in a solid month of grinding in December with good results before going home to LI for the holidays which was nice though as usual messed up my grinding mindset. After spending christmas with my immediate family, we went to my cousins wedding in NJ on NYE and I had a great time seeing people I haven't seen in a long time and meeting new ones.

A few days after that I left for the bahamas and PCA on the 4th where I had a great time. I ran well/played better on day 1 and went into day two with 123k where blinds started at 800/1600-200, but I couldn't really get anything going and eventually got my chips in with AA to KJs in a standard spot for a ~120k pot at 2k/4k-400 though unfortunately I couldn't hold. I did pick up my first cash in a live 10k though so that was cool. There weren't really any cool or interesting hands worth writing about.

After busting the tournament I really wasn't that upset because I had the rest of the time to just relax/have a good time in the bahamas which I did to the best of my abilities. Atlantis is really just an incredible resort with so much to do, though unfortunately the day activities come to an end around 5 PM as the sun is going down. Some fun things I did this time around were jet skiing twice, snorkeling, drunk rock climbing, water slides, and eating lots of great food. This time at PCA was my first time at nobu and I was extremely impressed. I really like the way the meal is served like a bunch of appetizers and of course the food is awesome. Obligatory special shout out for the dish called shrimp tempura miso glaze which is easily top 3 best dishes I've ever had in my life.

On the second to last day at Atlantis while walking through the shops near the lobby I decided to go into the John Bull store and check out some watches, rolex's specifically. I found some I liked and had already decided I wanted a rolex over anything else so I went back a few more times the next day and had planned to spend somewhere in the neighborhood of $8k. When I went back just before closing to make a final decision though I asked to see one I hadn't looked at before for some reason and it clearly stood out among the others. The lady helping me then said it was ~$26k.

I hadn't really planned to spend nearly that much on a watch but I've been doing well lately and I had the cash to pay for it so I get 9% off. After some deliberation I decided to buy it and am still liking it a lot. I have a picture I took on my iphone but the quality is pretty bad and the leggo server is telling me it's too big for me to upload it.

After getting back from PCA I was home in MD for a day before leaving for turning stone where I'll be for a week, then I'm off to borgata and then eventually back home to get some quality grinding in. I'm definitely going to try to put in some hours while on the road since I haven't played in almost a month.

GL at the tables fellas.

EDIT: How could I forget some of the most awesome things that happened on the trip.

Robert 'THEROBBOB20' Starkey proposed to his girlfriend near the end of the trip and the wedding is tentatively scheduled to be in a year to a year and a half. Congratulations to him and his fiance Tiffany.

Also the leggo dinner and post party were awesome. I had a great time getting belligeranty drunk, making a fool of myself, and meeting some chill new people.

So after scooping up mad cash in the million and running hot in other various forms of NLH over the next week and moving into my new apartment, I started playing more and more like I did in my true grind days. My streak of grinding was broken for various reasons when I went back to NY for thanksgiving, so on one hand I was upset because I had a good routine going and felt 'in the zone' but on the other hand I got to spend quality time with my family and see tons of friends from high school that I haven't seen some of in a year or two so no real complaints there. Monday I got back to MD and I already feel like I'm back on my game after only putting in one(albeit long) session.

Earlier while I was thinking about the poker world and everything it involves as I often do, although this is obvious, without thinking about it it's easy to overlook how thankful winning players should be that poker boomed to the extent that it did. It basically changed my entire life in almost every aspect as I'm sure it has many of yours, if not directly because of the lifestyle that it creates, then indirectly due to the options you have available because of networking/financial freedom/etc.

Though this is nothing ground breaking I felt like putting into words how I feel about poker and how happy it makes me.

Also, while I didn't put in any grind sessions during my stay in NY I was able to pump out a 10-20 video and a 3 part 5-10 video. I have them saved and just need to produce them properly so expect those sometime soon. That's all for now, gl at the tables everyone.

-Andrew

So yesterday I decided to play Sunday tournaments because I'm staying with Charder and he was playing. I played a pretty full scheduele, though Jay probably played 2x as many tournaments as I did =]. I built up a bunch of stacks in things early on and spewed some of them off and got unlucky for some of them, and eventually I was 1 tabling the million. I had a nice stack and was really able to focus and pick up reads and by the time the final table bubble rolled around I won some crucial flips and my hands held and went into the final table as the chip leader. I lost the lead for a little while with 5 left but regained it and won a huge flip to enter the HU match as a slight CL. I felt like I played really well HU but there is always a certain luck factor when you play any poker at all of course, and especially so with stacks in the 20-40bb range. It's funny because I feel like most if not all of the all-in hands HU were just entirely composed of hidden luck, by that I mean if the hands were reversed my opponent would get his chips in with my hand as well and mine with his. Alas it was not meant to be but 2nd place was good for ~$127k. Christian had 5% so congrats to him as well!

I'm leaving for the amtrak in a few hours and plan to make a 6max video ASAP when I get back at stakes to be determined depending on what games are running.

FOXWOODS!!!

I'm currently at Foxwoods for the WPT and 5k prelim. I got here Sunday and played the 5k on Monday which I got a nice stack in but ran into some absurdly dumb spots and busted a 50bb stack at the 4-8 level before the level was over. Very happy with how I played throughout though.

Day 1 of the 10k main was mostly frustrating because my table was composed of extremely tight players to my left, and one extremely loose one to my direct right but I could never get anything going. Starting stack was 30k and I was neither below 20 or above 40 until the last level where I started with 33k, got up to ~70k, before finishing the day with 15k. I was happy with my play despite getting it in in the 70k pot w ~3.5% equity(AK no bdfd to 77 on AxJc7c). Action went player to my direct right open to 1600 at 3-6-75, very active etc, I make it 4650 in HJ w AKdd. Button who has been playing a lot of pots with opener flats and says something like, 'only because you're in it'(pointing to opener) and opener flats. Flop action is check, bet 7200, fold, tank for like 2 minutes, shoves ~20k more, I snap. He says, 'Do you have three aces?'. I'm like wtf no, he shows, runs out Q, T. After that he continued to open a ton of pots as he had been(j5o in hj, 39s utg), and absolutely crush everyone including me. I felt so frustrated not being able to own him despite having position because he was just making hands and as time went on the stacks got shallower so there was less room for me to abuse him. Anyway, shortly after I got to 70 after sucking out I squeezed the guy who flatted button in the previous hand and a tight middle aged guy w AKhh(1800-8500), opener flatted w 30k total and 33, flop J83hh and I whiff it. From there I lost a few more small pots to end the day. After a day of boring annoying poker though I had a nice dinner with Christian, Rob, Alex, and Travis.

Day 2 we started at 400-800/100 and since I remember it more clearly I'll do a more in depth write up. I started the day with Nick Shulman to my direct left and Chad Brown two to my right who I have played with before more then a few times. I didn't recognize anyone else except the kid to Shulman's left who I had been told is a decent TAG, but right off the bat I opened to HJ to 2250 w TT and a 13.5k stack, BB defends and we check it down on a AcJc5x5x4x board and he shows J4hh. So after that and a few more hands I felt good about my table and confident I could generalize what kind of styles everyone would be playing. I get down to 6600 finding no spots to put any chips in the pot when the HJ who is the J4hh guy from before opens to 3k and I find AQo in the BB and beat his ATo.

A hand I saw that actually happened at the 4-8 level went, UTG shove for ~17k(he had previously open shoved 20k but had also open raised a few times and limped once), UTG1 who is the J4hh guy insta puts out chips that end up being 32k. Their hands? A5o and ATo respectively.

After this I win a few small pots and have ~17k going into the 500-1,000/150 level. First hand back from break I'm one before the hijack and the guy to my direct right opens to 3k, I find AQo again and shove, folds to him he asks for a count tanks it and calls AKo, queen in the door though and I hold to get up to around 40. After that I blind off for a while getting no hands and only getting playable hands when there is action that makes them unplayable in front of me. Our table breaks and my new table seems really good.

The first hand back from break entering the 600-1200/200 level I find KK and raise to 3600 in the HJ, get flatted by the button. It comes QQT w two diamond I have the Kd. I bet 6.6k into 10.8k intending to get it in for my remaining ~19 or so, but he folds. Very next hand I open AKo to 3600 and get flatted by the BB. It comes A89r, he c/c 5400, turn is a 4 bringing a fd and he checks again. I assume he's an internet kid because of how he looks and clearly I'm perceived as an internet kid(and aggressive regardless of how I have been playing which is much truer than I ever used to think), so I opt to shove for a slight overbet of ~27 into ~21. He tanks and fold. I like my play here though because I think the majority of his range is Ax and I think shoving looks weaker than betting something smaller given stacks, additionally when the FD turns people have more semi-bluffs to put you on and thus have more reason to call.

I get moved from this table unfortunately to a new table and the first hand I see play out when I sit down is a middle aged Indian man opens the HJ to 3800, David 'The Dragon' Pham 3bets to 13.8k on the button, opener calls. Flop is KhTx6h, check, 20k, shove for ~41k more. Pham tanks for a solid 3 minutes before calling w AQo no heart and the openers JTo no heart holds. I don't find any pots to play before the end of the level where I have around 40k coming back to the 800-1600/200 level. Very first hand I open the CO to 4800 and the Indian guy makes it 23k on the button. I'm kind of scared because he's very cally pf but he's too spazzy to consider folding so I stick it in and he has the other two tens. Throughout this level I open a few times and get 3b twice which is absurd because the players to my left were all giving me respect. I attribute this to terrible hidden luck, basically any time I had a hand worth opening someone else picked up a big one behind me. I finish the level with a little over 40.

First hand back from the break at 1k-2k/300 I find QQ utg and open to 6k, 3 different people ask me how much I have but eventually everyone folds. I opened 3 more hands this level, once 89s on the button and the BB called who had been fairly straightforward but showed the propensity to defend his BB very light. It came KJTr giving me a bdfd and he checked to me. In retrospect with 15.7k in the pot and approximately 45k behind I think I definitely should bet like 10.5k on the flop and shove the turn because he will peel a lot of pair+sd hands and just single pair hands but fold to my turn shove with them on blanks(at least this is what I would assume from this particular player because I had played with him almost all day). I decided to check in the heat of the moment though because this flop hits a lot of hands, turn is an 8 bringing a bdfd he bets 7k I fold and he shows me a jack. I also think another benefit for betting flop and jamming turn is that a lot of his hands that would call my turn shove will rarely get to the turn because they'll c/r the flop and I'll easily fold. I opened two more pots in LP and got 3bet both times which again frustrated me beyond belief because of how tight I was playing. Eventually I was down to ~28k and shoved 9Ts two before the hijack, unfortunately Pham had JJ in the SB and out I went.

I was less happy with my play throughout the main event than I was in the 5k but I still think I played well. That said, I am continuing to learn a lot about live poker and am very much looking forward to the WSOP where I can hopefully fix my leaks at a faster rate with there being so many tournaments to volume in, where as currently it's like one or two tournaments a month.

As far as the next few month go I've decided I'm definitely not going to do any traveling before PCA/Aussie in early January. I'm going to be moving into a hella ballin apartment on Tuesday and chill out there...

After my last blog entry I was headed to Lonodn for WSOPE and EPT. We got there a few days before WSOPE and had planned to grind a ton online during this trip, but that's always easier said than done when traveling if not because of the cool stuff going on in the areas you visit, the internet being terrible. So I mostly just hung out around London and played the live events as well as some live cash. The former was fun and the latter two not so much. In WSOPE I got sucked out on for two big pots which was really disappointing considering the structure was incredibly good.

In the EPT I lost a big flip early on day one which was whatever, EPT structures are pretty bad so winning pots like that early are crucial. There was a funny pot in EPT London though where someone limped, John Phan accidentally minraised having intended to limp behind with 8 BB's, the button 3bet, the limper flatted, John Phan stuck it in and although the button couldn't technically isolate he just insta jams and the limper insta calls. And the look on the dealers face was like, 'eh, I guess everyone wants to be all-in so whatever'. For those interested, the limper had JJ, John Phan had Q8hh, the button had 88 and the board ran out QxTh7h5x8x.

I ended up playing the EPT high roller event after selling off a good % of myself and got KK to AA in level one in a spot where there was no avoiding it for a lot of my chips, then shoved K7s into Juanda's BB from the SB which was marginal but imo optimal. He tanked for a minute and a half or so before calling with AJs and out I went. After London was over I went back to the US for a few days before heading out to Niagara for the WPT.

Niagara was my first ever WPT and I was pretty impressed with how the tournament was run. The structure was better than EPT's and the staff was much better, I can't imagine hands like the aforementioned one would occur here. I played really well on day 1 and built up a big stack but got crushed quick on day two getting in a bunch of really stupid unavoidable spots.

After Niagara me and 6 friends took a limo to turning stone casino in upstate new york for the 5k HPT(heartland poker tour) event. The structure for this was pretty awesome but unfortunately there were only 49 runners. I actually think I ran pretty bad throughout the tournament but the structure was good enough that I was able to chip up and conserve an above average stack for most of the tournament until we approached the TV final table bubble where I lost a few too many big pots and entered the TV FT with only 82k at 1500-3k-500 ante with 980k chips in play though I had as many as ~160k at my peak. I ended up busting 5th for ~18k. TV poker is kind of wack though, it's obviously all really glorified and hyped up and kind of tilting but it is what it is and is one of the main reasons poker is so popular right now so I can't really hate on it.

So that sums up the end of my travels thus far as I sit here in a turning stone room waiting to fly home. My plan for the next few months is to put live tournaments aside for a little while and grind online and make a ton of money. I still might play foxwoods in early November, but if I skip that I won't play anything before PCA and maybe EPT Prague. GL everyone.